The first night had a very strong turnout of buyers with extra chairs required before the auction could commence. The first of the collections to go under the hammer was that of The Untitled Art Group who were disbanding after the standard 10 years of collecting. Their offering included works by Sam Mitchell, Peter Stichbury, Gavin Hurley and Karl Maughan. When a disposal of an art group collection is well supported, some epic auction battles can occur, as members compete for their favourite works. The works of Untitled Art Group didn’t appear to have a strong member support, and the most successful works were those that appealed to the regular auction buyers, including Karl Maughan’s Auckland (Lot 11 ) which realized $21,000 and was contested with three phones and an absentee buyer and Neil Driver’s hyper realist work Cabbage Tree (Lot 17 ) which was a tussle between a couple in the room and an art group member and made $10,200 against a $6,000 low estimate. Of the group’s collection, 50% sold under the hammer on the night with a few more subject bids for consideration the next day.
The Ted Dutch collection comprised 50 works by this interesting artist who worked across a variety of media including painting, printmaking and sculpture from the 1950s to the late 2000s. Although the artist is well known on the secondary market, the majority of his previous auction sales have been prints.
Dutch’s unique style of quirky figures set amongst a technological landscape are best represented by his charming Signaler figures which are small scale earthenware sculptures with coloured enamel medallions. Nine of these figures were included in the sale. Previously only a handful had been offered. A number of clients bid fiercely on each figure taking the final hammer total to three times the total of the low estimates.
The sought after work, Tall Signaler Figure (Lot 84 ) achieved $1,800 against a low estimate of $600. This section cleared 100% by value and the strong results will certainly assist in a reassessment of the value of the artist’s work.
As for the remainder of the lots, many sold around the low estimate and there are no major highs to report. The only the exception was an early Bill Hammond Origin Donor Swapper Crate 2 (Lot 179 ) which was estimated at $22,000-$32,000. Surprisingly, the auctioneer opened the bidding at less than one-third of the low estimate - $6,000. While some auction goers were looking at each other wondering if the auctioneer was reading off the wrong lot, a couple of the more astute buyers couldn’t believe their luck and starting bidding. The lot sold for $9,000 subject to vendor confirmation, so A+O must have an incredibly flexible vendor if that sale is agreed, while the lucky bidder will have made the buy of the night.
The second night saw 216 lots belonging to John Perry - notable New Zealand artist, collector, ex museum director, AASD commentator and all-round fountain of knowledge.
John’s life has taken many twists and turns through New Zealand and his experiences and memories of the art scene in New Zealand from the 1960s onwards are a rich resource.
John’s current venture is Global Village Antiques, started in the early 2000s and housed in an old theatre in Helensville, Auckland. The stock is a veritable treasure trove of hundreds or perhaps thousands of items displayed in no particular order at all. A ramble through Global Village is like a cross between a museum, antique shop and film set and there is a great temptation to while away the hours rummaging through paintings, objects of social history, ceramics and ephemera.
John’s interests have been wide ranging but those included in this catalogue are a mini snapshot of John’s collecting scope including New Zealand folk art, printmaking from the 1900s to the late 20th century, naïve art, the artists’ Denis Knight Turner and Theo Schoon, the latter with whom John had a close connection. In the applied and decorative arts, weaving and New Zealand studio pottery (mainly Barry Brickell) also featured heavily.
The first section of the sale featured a selection of New Zealand print making, lots of delicate etchings, wood engravings and aquatints which depicted the landscapes of New Zealand around the 1920s. Although the prices achieved were generally under $500, there was a small band of dedicated buyers who provided competition on most lots. The highest price in this section was achieved by the master wood engraver E. Mervyn Taylor's Waterfall (lot 330) at $810.
The middle section of the sale was represented by New Zealand modernism, where some early examples of abstraction were available such as the interesting work by Kurt Von Meier, Karekare (lot 409,) who was a visiting lecturer at Elam from 1962-1964. This work which provided a great compliment to the Ted Dutch paintings from the previous night realized a very reasonable $1,200 hammer.
Also in this section, the paintings of Dennis Knight Turner featured strongly, with a great variety of works which showed the scope of his oeuvre. A very unusual ink and charcoal drawing of Fence Posts (lot 422) an almost quintessential New Zealand subject realized $925 against a $500 reserve, while the stark and dramatic Five Dead Trees (lot 428), also by Dennis Knight Turner demonstrated how this area of the modernist area market has moved relatively quickly in a short space of time. Last offered at Dunbar Sloane in Wellington in 2009, where it went unsold at $1,000, it was offered in John Perry’s sale for $4,500-$7,500 and it easily eclipsed the low estimate to realise $7,250 hammer.
Theo Schoon's works have recently seen a large upswing in auction prices, due to the new interest in Schoon’s academic and documentary type study of Maori imagery and culture. John’s collection included five of the iconic Waiotapu Mudpool photographs and three woodblocks prints of Maori design all of which easily sailed through their estimates to sell high. Geothermal Study, Waiotapu (lot 435) with a low estimate of $4,000 sold to the book for $10,500. The final section of the auction was New Zealand Folk Art, an area that John has been a particular champion for over the years. There were many fascinating items including two naïve paintings by R T Lyne, Tane Mahuta (lot 505) and Ngarahoe Eruption 1954 (lot 504) which bounded through estimates to achieve $1,000 and $925 respectively. John’s fine collection of Folk Art Maori carving was almost all bought by the same bidder, who no doubt will be extremely happy with lot 516, a pair of Maori Figures from the early 20th century for which they paid $4,000 against a $3,000 low estimate.
Reflecting on the catalogue, John Perry likes to say it is ‘Art History – New Zealand’s Art History’ – and I have to agree. An art history that is just an important as the McCahon’s, Angus’s and Hoteres which fill our text books but runs to the essence of John Perry as a collector and his understanding of the uniqueness of New Zealand and its visual history.
The two sales raised just short of $550,000 hammer, with the usual post action sales expected to boost the results.
